Oakland Lands Richard Seymour: Good Idea or Waste of a First Round Pick?

Time for another fun debate.

I first read about this on twitter. It appears the Raiders have hit a gold nugget, but gave up a first round pick in 2011 for him. Richard Seymour, who has a tremendous upside, will be 30 this year. A draft pick in 2011 will be a completely new player...or a bust pick with no upside.

So, let's look at Richard Seymour a moment.

A five-time Pro Bowler, Richard has 227 tackles in his career, six fumbles recovered, and 39 sacks in 111 games, starting 105 of those.

Those are decent stats. About the only reason Belichick let him walk was due to a youth movement taking over in New England.

For a Draft Pick, several factors come into play. First of all, finding gold in the draft. Will you get a Peyton Manning, or a Ryan Leaf? A Ki-Jana Carter or a Barry Sanders?

And where will the Raiders draft, come 2011? Some so-called experts think it will be a top 10 pick. One possible question this could lead into is if the Raiders have to deal with Nnamdi Asomugha's pending free agency, will this lead to his departure by Al Davis' plan?

What is also interesting is that while the media has been congratulating Belichick for this move, not one outlet has thought of this as a good move for Oakland, who now have a big name player who has the skills the Raiders need.

Lastly, Richard's contract runs out after this year...does he resign with Oakland, or move on again?